Space Art Project

We have recently been involved in a very exciting project – a world first, in fact. The creation of a stunning piece of artwork at height of more than 100,000 feet!

How it all started…

The story began about six months ago when we were approached by Josh Taylor, a remarkable young entrepreneur who had already successfully launched a home-made weather balloon into Space and recorded the footage of planet Earth. The project known as TMSB (Taylor Made Space Balloon) had attracted national and international media coverage.

This time, his aim was to create the world’s first Space Art canvas by launching a balloon attached to a canvas, tubing and paints which would be released at a certain time to produce a work of art. The project would be known as JTSA (Joshing Talk Space Art). Colours were chosen to represent the view of Earth from Space; blue for water, green for land, brown for desert and yellow for the Sun.

How did we help?

Obviously, our area of expertise is chemicals and all things chemistry-related. Our Technical Department worked with Josh to formulate specialist paints which would not freeze in the cold atmosphere of Space. We looked at composition, viscosity and freezing points and eventually came up with an optimum temperature of minus 45 degrees Centigrade to hopefully produce the best results.

It was really important to get the right texture for the paint so that it could be released onto the canvas in a controlled way rather than just a big ‘blob’ of colour. We adapted the tubing so that the paint would flow at a controlled rate and Josh was ready to go!

Did it work?

We were so relieved when we got news that the JTSA project had been a resounding success. Images of the amazing piece of artwork can be seen on Josh’s website together with footage of his earlier Space Balloon project which you can also see below:

http://youtu.be/tR6ulvNFo-A

What next?

Josh is currently working on his latest endeavour, a challenge which has been set by non other than Sir Richard Branson, head of the Virgin Group, to see how far he can get a camera down into the dark depths of the Ocean.

We’re here to help…

We’re not sure if Josh will need chemicals and chemical expertise with this latest venture, but we’re here to help if he does and we’re looking forward to seeing some spectacular footage of the Ocean depths in due course. As they say, watch this Space – or maybe that should be, watch this Ocean!

Richard represents the third generation of the family that founded ReAgent back in 1977; he has been a Director at ReAgent since 2006 and took over the role of Managing Director from his father in 2010. Read more posts by Rich »